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328 PASSAGE OF THE QUINDIU.- 
This mountain, which is considered as the most 
difficult passage in the cordilleras, presents a thick 
uninhabited forest, which, in the finest season, can- 
not be passed in less than ten or twelve days. Tra- 
vellers usually furnish themselves with a month’s 
provision, as it often happens that the melting of 
the snow, and the sudden floods arising from it, pre- 
vent them from descending. The highest point of 
the road is 11,4994 feet above the level of the sea, 
and the path, which is very narrow, has in several 
places the appearance of a gallery dug in the rock 
and left open above. The oxen, which are the beasts 
of burden commonly used in the country, can scarce- 
ly force their way through these passages, some of 
which are 6562 feet in length. The rock is covered 
with a thick layer of clay, and the numerous gul- 
lies formed by the torrents are filled with mud. 
In crossing this mountain the philosophers, follow- 
ed by twelve oxen carrying their collections and in- 
struments, were deluged with rain. Their shoes were 
torn by the prickles which shoot out from the roots 
of the bamboos, so that, unwilling to be carried on 
men’s backs, they were obliged to walk barefooted. 
The usual mode of travelling, however, is in a chair. 
tied to the back of a carguero or porter. When one 
reflects on the enormous fatigue to which these 
bearers are exposed, he is at a loss to conceive how 
the employment should be so eagerly embraced by 
all the robust young men who live at the foot of 
the Andes. The passage of Quindiu is not the 
only part of South America which is traversed in 
this manner. The whole province of Antioquia is 
surrounded by mountains so difficult to be crossed, 
that those who refuse to trust themselves to the 
